A Chorus of Voices Praises A Pale Blue Dot

A Chorus of Voices Praises A Pale Blue Dot

A Chorus of Voices Praises A Pale Blue Dot

A panel from the magnificent Zen Pencils version of "Pale Blue Dot". Click to see the whole thing.

Drawing by Gavin Aung Than

Over the weekend — Sunday, Nov. 9, 2013, to be more precise — it was Carl Sagan’s birthday. Had not complications from myelodysplasia taken him from us, he would have been 79.

Science enthusiasts around the planet now celebrate that day as Carl Sagan Day, to appreciate what he showed us, and to appreciate reality for what it is.

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Ryan Consell, a skeptic and artist at Mad Art Lab, created a lovely tribute to Sagan. He asked several dozen people to read a single line from “Reflections on a Mote of Dust” — more commonly known as “Pale Blue Dot” — perhaps Sagan’s finest words (and, in my not-so-humble opinion, one of the finest tracts ever written in the English language). Each of them created a video of themselves saying it, and Consell put them together into a moving and fitting piece.

You may recognize more than one person in it.

Happy Carl Sagan Day, everyone. And to Carl: thanks.

Phil Plait writes Slate’s Bad Astronomy blog and is an astronomer, public speaker, science evangelizer, and author of Death From the Skies!